Wednesday, 23 October 2013

Manchester Beer & Cider Festival 2014

Advance notice of the replacement for the National Winter Ales Festival in Manchester next January.

When CAMRA decided that it was time that the
National Winter Ales Festival's nine-year tenure in Manchester came to an end,
there was some degree of outcry both from those volunteers who had pulled the
festival together for many years and from the drinkers who had enjoyed the
annual January festival.

Nine months on from the final event in
Manchester, that decision by CAMRA may well have been the best thing that every
happened for festival goers in the region - without it, the Manchester Beer
& Cider Festival would never have been conceived. The new festival takes
the same slot in the January calendar (22 to 25 January) and is shaping up
to be Manchester's biggest and best ever beer festival. The biggest coup for
the organisers was securing the amazing setting of Manchester Velodrome for the
event - not the adjacent café used for the small warm up event in August - the
actual Velodrome itself. As a building, it's simply stunning to stand inside
that track and marvel at the scale of the place - and that's without any beer
in it.

Set on the floor inside that steeply banked
track will be the largest range of beers and ciders ever offered in Manchester.
There will be well over 300 cask conditioned craft beers alongside a bar full
of real ale in a bottle (drink in or take away) - every beer that is ready for
sale will be available from the first session until it is sold. The cider and
perry bar is expected to offer at least 75 different ciders and perries - all
made from fresh apple or pear juice.

If the best of British beers isn't enough,
then the 'Bière sans Frontières' bar will be importing the very best beers
brewed for Germany's Oktoberfest alongside Belgian, Dutch, Czech and American
beers - far too many to mention. Some of the most cutting edge breweries in the
country including Marble Beers, Hawkshead, Liverpool Organic and Ilkley Brewery
will be hosting their own bars offering a larger range of their beers than the
three main cask bars can accommodate plus offering the chance to meet their
brewers.

In total there will be no fewer than 16 bars
to visit. Surrounding these are some 1700 seats from where visitors will be
able to look over the festival floor and watch cyclists riding the track. The
Great Britain Cycling Team have training sessions on the track twice a day
which will continue throughout the festival alongside other clubs and taster
sessions.

The festival kicks off at 4.30pm on Wednesday
22 January and runs through until Saturday evening. The Velodrome is easily
accessible via Manchester's Metrolink tram network - its own Velopark station
is served by trams every 12 minutes - with the 216 and other bus routes from
Manchester even more frequent. CAMRA Members will be entitled to free entry all
day Wednesday and Thursday with discounts on entry at all other times.

To find out more, visit the festival website, and for all the
latest news follow the festival on Facebook or (if you must) on twitter on @mancbeerfest .